NATIONAL PRIMARY CARE WORKFORCE SURVEY ADVISORY GROUP REPORT ON 2013 SURVEY - WEB ONLY

2013 Survey

12. In May 2012, a workshop was held with NHS Scotland stakeholders at which considerable support was expressed for a Primary Care Workforce Survey to be undertaken in 2013. However, it was proposed that the 2013 Survey should consist of two forms: one of which would essentially repeat, but also build on, the 2009 Survey in respect of In Hours service and another which would capture information to support GP Out of Hours (OOH) workforce planning. Extension of the Survey to include GP OOH service was in recognition of the concerns expressed by OOH service managers and clinical leads about the increasing challenges faced in providing OOH GP-led services.

13. Consideration was given to repeating the approach taken in 2009 of providing financial support to GP practices for the completion and return of the Survey form. However, it was recognised that providing payment to complete a survey would be particularly difficult to justify in the current financial climate. The benefits of having a workforce survey were seen as not being solely restricted to the Scottish Government i.e. GP practices (and others) would obtain benefits from the results, and therefore no financial support was offered for completion of the 2013 Survey.

14. The proposals for a 2013 Survey were approved by the then Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy and discussions commenced with ISD Scotland, part of NHS National Services Scotland.

In Hours form

15. Having commissioned ISD Scotland to undertake the collation and analysis of the Survey results in due course, the Scottish Government's next step was to review the 2009 Survey form and guidance notes, taking account of feedback received during the 2009 exercise, to improve the layout and content of the form. In addition, the questions requesting information about the nursing workforce were expanded and clarified, in liaison with nursing colleagues. These changes were designed to improve the Survey, making the questions easier to understand and the form easier to complete.

16. In a repeat of the arrangements for the 2009 Survey, it was agreed with the Scottish General Practitioners' Committee (SGPC) that, in order to protect practice identifiable information, completed returns would be forwarded to Glasgow Local Medical Committee (LMC), on whose premises the raw data would be collated before being stripped of practice identifiers and returned to ISD for analysis.

17. The revised form and guidance notes were piloted with SGPC members over the Christmas and New Year period, helping to finalise the documents.

Out of Hours form

18. Scottish Government officials and ISD Scotland met some of the National OOH Operations Group members in August 2012 to discuss the development of the OOH form. Whilst group members were very keen to be part of the work and had some general ideas about the sorts of information that they wanted to capture through the Survey, they indicated they had considerable difficulty in trying to express that as a structured survey form. Therefore most of the active development of the OOH Survey form was undertaken between late October 2012 and mid January 2013 and was undertaken by ISD Scotland. The actual time that ISD and National OOH Operations Group members spent in collective face to face discussion in relation to the development of the form was ultimately very limited, amounting to approx 2-3 hours in total. As a result, there was insufficient time to pilot the form before the Survey was launched. The 2013 Survey is therefore considered the OOH Survey pilot.

Advance notification

19. CEL 02 (2013) was issued on 22 January 2013 (and is available for viewing at http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2013_02.pdf) providing advance notice of the Survey to Health Board Chief Executives and HR Directors, copied to Health Board Primary Care Leads; NHS Education for Scotland; the SGPC; the National Out of Hours Operations Group; the Scottish Practice Nursing Association; the Royal College of General Practitioners; and the Royal College of Nursing.

Distribution of forms and guidance

20. The Survey forms and guidance notes were forwarded to Health Board Primary Care Leads in late January for distribution of the In Hours Survey form to GP practices and the OOH Survey form to the relevant Health Board official(s). The In Hours form requested data relating to the workforce profile and shift hours required/filled as at 31 January 2013 while the OOH form requested data relating to the workforce profile employed/managed by the OOH service in the 12 months ending 31 January 2013.

21. The forms and guidance notes included contact details for assistance completing the Survey (Glasgow LMC and ISD Scotland for the In Hours form and ISD Scotland for the OOH form). The closing date for completion and return of the Survey forms was 28 February 2013.

Response rate

22. Throughout February, the Scottish Government worked closely with the Health Boards and other key service stakeholders to promote awareness of the Survey and to encourage completion. However, as at 1 March, the GP practice response rate was 48%. This was disappointing, as a response rate of less than 67% overall, or in individual Health Board areas, could have significant implications for ISD Scotland's ability to generate reliable estimates of overall workforce numbers from the Survey data. In consultation with ISD Scotland, it was therefore agreed to extend the deadline by a further two weeks. At 15 March, the response rate in respect of the In Hours survey form was 62% and 100% in respect of the OOH survey form (although most of the OOH forms were incomplete at this stage). A handful of completed forms were received after 15 March. Overall across Scotland, 623 GP practices (63.1% of Scotland's practices) responded to the Survey.

23. On receipt of completed forms, ISD Scotland's first priority was to collate and check these. In some cases, this required ISD to contact individual GP practices and Health Board officials to request additional information.